"Coming with you to meet the king of Twilight?" Emerson rolled his eyes and leaned against the wall, "I'm not going, why should I waste my time with a king who has no future?!"

Cumberland took a cool breath, stopped the urge to strangle someone in his heart, and asked in a low voice, "King with no future?"

Emerson glanced back at the old knight, "Todd Fischer, that's the right name, isn't it? Regardless of whether he is a son or not, he is not qualified as the founding monarch alone." ”

Looking at Cumberland's facial expression, which was already on the verge of rage, Emerson did not have the slightest fear, sat up and looked directly into the other party's eyes: "I naturally have my reasons for saying this." You can think about what kind of characteristics have been common to the monarchs who founded new kingdoms since the time of Gutaro?"

Cumberland shook his head and said, "I don't read as many books as you, and I don't want to guess, you tell me directly." ”

Emerson clenched his right hand into a fist, raised it in front of Cumberland, and said, "It doesn't matter if a founding king is not smart enough, if he has a broken family, or even if he lacks martial might, but there is one thing that must be possessed—ambition, or lust for power. ”

"After talking about it for so long, you tell me that a virtuous monarch should be a careerist first and foremost?!"

Emerson stretched out his hands, looked at Cumberland, and said in a firm tone: "Ambition, selfishness, forbearance, tyranny, and judgment of the situation are the virtues of a king. You knights, because you have suffered too much hypocritical preaching, have begun to reject the truth and surrender to hypocrisy. ”

"Human beings are two-faced creatures, on the one hand, they are stupid, they always have a desire to satisfy everything, and on the other hand, they have a natural tendency to submit to power. Emerson looked at the 'umbrella' on Cumberland's chest, shook his head, and said, "The king, especially the Founding Lord, should be as cruel as a lion and as cunning as a fox. But the ruler of the twilight is doing the opposite, dividing his power among the people and hoping that the people themselves will balance their needs, which in itself is a ridiculous thing. ”

Cumberland was speechless for a long time at Emerson's statement, and when he came back to his senses, he weakly defended: "The king should love his people, and the people should obey the king's will." ”

Emerson leaned his back against the wall and sneered, "What the monarch needs is cruelty, not love." Fear and obedience are more secure and powerful to the monarch than to be loved. But sometimes it was necessary for him to convince the people that the monarch was "a man of virtue." ”

Looking at Cumberland's increasingly confused expression, Emerson continued: "It is not difficult to understand that the king should show love for his people and kindness and generosity in public. Leave others to do what they punish, and in the end, they can blame others and find scapegoats to avoid being condemned by the people. When rewarding others, you should personally come forward to avoid letting your subordinates do personal favors. ”

Cumberland shook his head as he listened: "Listen to what you say! Greed, pride, tyranny, these are the original sins! You let a holy son rely on these sins to gain power and govern the country?!"

"In the past, I used to believe in good deeds, but the year before the fall of the Silver Ring Kingdom, what I saw, heard, and did completely changed my mind. Emerson stretched out his trembling hand, took out a small wine bottle in his arms, opened the gag, and took a sip: "It's like two people, if everyone has good intentions, they will be fine, if you have no malice and the other has bad intentions, you must be unlucky in the end, but if both of them are not good, it will end up in a draw." Therefore, from the beginning, holding the most selfish intention is the best strategy. ”

Cumberland snatched the wine bottle, threw it into the pile of debris behind him, pointed at Emerson's nose and scolded: "Ridiculous! If you think like this, there is no more virtue and goodwill in the world, only deceit and lust for profit, and only war and killing are left in the world, what is the difference between this and hell?!"

"You have fought more battles than I do, and you come to tell me, in this dark world, what year has there been no war?"

Emerson's words made Cumberland choke up for a moment, and he didn't reply.

Emerson leaned his head against the wall, looked into the roof, and muttered, "This world is a hell for a long time." ”

——————————————

Todd sat on the throne, his eyes closed, contemplating everything in his head.

It's the homework he has to do every day now.

Before leaving, Lawrence gave Todd a portion of his memories and abilities as gifts.

Abilities aside.

As one of the three elders of the Presbyterian Church, his memory is naturally extremely valuable. Through them, Todd not only learns about the internal structure and operational processes of the Presbyterian Church, but even peeks into some of the organization's "secrets".

But the trouble is that the memories that come over are all fragments, sometimes a scene, sometimes a prop, sometimes just a vague sound.

What Todd has to do now is to rearrange and combine these chaotic "memory fragments" according to time and characters, and find out the most critical events.

And for him, the most important thing at the moment is how to stop the mutation.

According to Jerome of the Discord Legion, he was on the verge of mutation due to the failure of the Successor's experiment. As a result of Theodore's treatment, not only was the mutation suspended, but he also became a member of the "New Heir".

Todd intends to use Theodore's voice and images as the search keywords to conduct an investigational search of Lawrence's memories.

Not only is this work strenuous, but it is also slow. Finding what you want among tens of thousands of "memory fragments" is tantamount to looking for a needle in a haystack. But other than that, Todd really has nothing else to do.

"Your Majesty, Lord Cumberland has asked to see you outside the door. ”

As Huggins was still recuperating from his injuries at home, the work of the heralds was still in the hands of the Knights' guards.

Todd opened his eyes and said, "Please let him in." ”

In the strange eyes of the guards, Cumberland looked like a shepherd in the market, with a rope in his hand.

An old man who was tied up with flowers, with a loveless expression on his face, was dragged by Cumberland and walked into the room.

"Your Majesty, let me introduce you, this is my former boss and my good friend, Count Emerson. ”

Todd looked at the rope in Cumberland's hand, his brain a little spinning, his mouth open but he didn't know what to say.

"He was previously the commander of the Southern Legion of the Silver Ring Kingdom, the teacher of the three crown princes of the Silver Ring royal family, and also served as the Minister of the Interior and the Consul General of Foreign Affairs. Cumberland pulled the rope from his hand, Emerson stumbled a few steps forward, and the old knight's expression was as lively as a vendor selling goods: "He has been interested in all things in the Kingdom of Twilight for a long time, and this time he is very eager to make a request to serve His Majesty." ”

Urgent?

Serving Your Majesty?

Todd glanced at the ropes, then at the foul-faced Emerson, and whispered to Cumberland, "Are you sure he wants to play for the Twilight Kingdom......?"

"He's born with a face that's what he looks like, and he looks like a debt collector. ”

"And what's going on with this rope?"

"It's just some of his special hobbies......"

Emerson listened to the conversation between the two monarchs and ministers, his face flushed with anger, and finally shouted angrily: "Cumberland! If you dare to talk nonsense again, I will leave immediately!"

Todd glanced at the sneering old knight, walked up to Emerson, untied him with his own hands, and said, "If Cumberland forced you to come, you can leave at any time." ”

Emerson moved his hands and feet, looked at Todd and sighed, "Your Majesty, I want to talk to you." ”